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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Moving furniture around

I used to love to move the furniture around, but our little unit is so small and everything is just where it has to be, so I had to take the urge outside. :)
After my lovely neighbor gave me a garden chair a couple of months ago I placed it snugly under the tree fern. Nobody sat there, leaves fell all over it, and as the fern got bigger I wondered about where else the chair could go..... (I put up these "bali" flags for my MIL's 80th birthday and quite like them there - they might stay). Back to the point - that chair did look a little less than inviting didn't it?

So.... after giving the ponytail palm a bit of a haircut and moving it over to share its space I found the perfect spot for the chair.

It also means that the small heleconia plant can spread out a bit and be noticed - gosh you cant even see the space that the chair took up...

While I was checking out the chair in its new spot I began to think about the fact that the grass doesn't grow well, and I never really liked the way the path just ended. I call this time sitting in the chair or the swing "contemplative landscaping" and it normally ends with me jumping up to go and fetch some garden tools. Oh what a good idea - the path will now have a logical ending - into the other garden path - why hadn't I thought about that before? Just a few more rocks and pavers and it will be done.

In other garden news I have a torch ginger coming up. They say these flowers are edible, but I have never tasted one - hopefully I get enough that I can try them out - it has taken more than a year to start flowering, and this is my first flower. This is the light pink one - you also get them in red, they look just like a waxy rose.

I moved some of the eggplant out of the side pots into the now vacated tomato grow bag. They are in a coir type of material to stop them getting soil borne virticulum wilt, but I will have to add some sort of fertilizer I am sure.

Slowly our lives are getting back to normal, with time to spend in the garden - that chair and a good book sounds like a great idea.

Love changing things around as well, a bit of a change is good! I love your torch ginger, soooooo beautiful. Good idea putting the eggplant into the coir bag, I'm looking at doing something similar perhaps with just a bag of soil! No more sunny growing spots left for me to use!

My "contemplative landscaping" usually ends the same way. Unless my Honeyman is sitting next to me. We have an unwritten rule that we don't talk about "ta do's" when we're sitting in the garden. Instead we relax and enjoy the "ta dones". (I have to work at this.)

Missy,I didn't know they were called squatters chairs, what a good name for them. Rohrebot,now I just need to find the time...Mrs Bok,I dont do very well with things in pots as I forget to water them!Carolyn,I love that! It is so hard not to keep thinking of more things to change though.Kim,as they say the weather here is beautiful one day perfect the next :) I am lucky!Maklay Kadazan,Oh I didn't know it was used in Laksa - I make that quite often.

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Quotes I enjoy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people do - Elizabeth Berry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,

but in developing the capacity to enjoy less

- paraphrased from Socrates quote

“See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

Nature in all its diversity grants us a glimpse into the heart of God the Father which is nothing but Love.

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you seeHendry David Thoreau

Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly,to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has done so he will have to acceptthat his life is going to be radically changed. May SartonPlant Dreaming Deep, 1983

When the trees sing,It doesn't really matterIf you know the song, Or if you know the words,Or even if you know the tune.What really matters is knowing ....That the trees are singing at all.Mattie Stepanek, 1990-2004

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walkor an evening saunter;to be thrilled by the stars at night:to be elated over a bird's nestor a wildflower in spring... these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs, 1837-1921

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”– Thoreau

“Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

You who walkmaybe with troubled thoughts....Come, enter here and restand may the sweet serenityof growing things....and the heavenly peacebe mirrored in thy soul.by Michael Palmer

Gods GardenThe Lord God planted a gardenIn the first white days of the world,And he set there an angel wardenIn a garment of light enfurled.So near to the peace of HeavenThat the hawk might nest with the wren,For there in the cool of the evenGod walked with the first of men.And I dream that these garden closesWith their shade and their sun-flecked sodAnd their lilies and bowers of roses,Were laid by the hand of God.The kiss of the sun for pardon,The song of the birds for mirth, -One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.For He broke it for us in a gardenUnder the olive-treesWhere the angel of strength was the wardenAnd the soul of the world found ease.Dorothy Francis Gurney

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.Mary Jean Iron

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.Albert Einstein

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."~ John Lubbock******************************************************